The times are surely different than 80 years ago, one of the biggest differences being how the federal government has responded to this economic crisis, and therein lies a frightening possibility for our collective future for anyone who thinks the malinvestment that developed during another historic asset bubble must be purged before sound economic growth can continue -- if the Great Depression lasted a decade with far less government support, how long might the current slowdown persist, given that large swaths of the economy are being propped up by massive deficit spending and money printing in Washington?

Perhaps more importantly, have the borrowing and spending efforts by elected officials and the money printing actions of central bankers in recent years set us on a cataclysmic course, one that wasn't even possible 80 years ago?